Boys height

[PastaLaVistaBabee]

I have an 11 yr old boy who is 144cm. According to everything I can see on Google that's a pretty average height.

However, he's one of the smallest in his year at school (and he's one of the oldest yr 6's), the smallest in his sports team, and people keep commenting on how small he is.

Are the government height charts correct? Or are kids getting a lot taller nowadays for some reason and the charts are wrong?

Or do we just live in a freaky area where all the kids are massive!!??

Any thoughts!?

Our 20 year old is just under 6’ 5” now but was average height until around 16, as was his sister who is now 5’ 11” as an adult.

Think that's a perfectly normal height for his age tbh

Thanks both! That's quite reassuring! Mrsskyler - he'll love to hear that! He loves a sport where height will b v important in the future, but currently as everyone keeps calling him small, he thinks he's doomed to never grow! :)

Maybe some of the other boys are entering puberty a bit earlier than him. Boys can carry on growing into their 20s.

They grow in leaps and bounds - my DS1 went from average to one of the tallest, and is now being overtaken again! I fully expect another growth spurt soon. His feet grew three sizes in 8 weeks once (lesson learned - hopefully that won’t happen again, was very expensive).

Teenagers can grow quickly and seemingly at random times.

However, the final height achieved is largely genetic. I think the average expectation height for a son is that you add the mothers and fathers height together, add 5 inches and then divide by 2.

Before anyone yells, my kids are much taller than that, this is the average expectation from statistical evidence and there are of course outliers.

I think it is helpful to have a rough idea of what you childs likely height is going to be if they are seriously interested in pursuing sports professionally where height is an advantage. Reassuring your child that they are absolutely going to grow to 6ft+ to enable them to pursue their dreams is probably not the best plan if their mother is 5ft2 and their father 5ft5.

That said, there are a lot of sports where height is not so important, and I think Maradonna and Messi, both arguably two of the best football players the world has ever seen, were/are around 5ft6.

Hey just wanted to jump on. My son was born and on the 98th centile always. He’s now 12 and for some reason is the smallest of all of his peers!!! He has literally always been huge. Hands, feet’s, stature, height. But all of a sudden everyone is towering over him and he feels super crappy about it!! In his defence, he has not started puberty AT ALL. Where as some of his mates have tashes and deep voices. My question is, do you think there’s hope for him to have a massive growth spurt still? I mean he’s a size 8/9 shoe and is still only small. My brother randomly grew like a scene from the film ‘big’ so maybe that’s the way things will go for my boy? Any advice or knowledge or experience greatly received x

My DS2 was always short. In his Y6 class photo, he stuck out like a sore thumb - like a Y1 child had somehow wandered in.
I worried about it at the time, and I actually think I posted on here for advice.

DS is now in Y10, and he's pretty much caught up with his peers. He's not tall, but he definitely no longer stands out as being unusually short - and that's all that matters to him.

We seem to have a strange height range in our families. I'm 5'5", so pretty average, as is DH at 5'11".
My dad was really short at 5'6", while DH's sister is 6'2"
Neither of us know our extended families, so we've no idea where heights might be inherited from.

Please don't worry, my two sons were much shorter than their peers at 11 years old (smallest in class or second smallest) I could not really understand it, I am 5 foot 9, and husband 5 foot 11, they were over 10lb each born. My first boy was so small that my 1st daughter, a year younger overtook him in height aged around 12 by a couple of inches. By 14 we had a bit of equal stature, by 17, both boys were a lot taller. Now both 6 foot plus. They shot up from puberty. New trousers every few months was the downside !

Has he started puberty yet? It's likely the other boys have and hence have started a growth spurt. His time will come. DB was always short until his late teens and now he's well above average height.

If he's just turned 11, he's bang on the 50th centile. If he's about to turn 12, he's still on the 25th centile, so still well within normal range.

Just a thought...but are many of his classmates obese? Obesity in childhood tends to lead to increased height early on, then an earlier puberty, then stopping growing sooner, with a decreased adult height.

One of my 17 year old sons is 5ft 6.
I came on to say that small is OK. He may grow tall, he may not.
My son was short at 11 and he's short now.

Hope he doesn't get a complex about it. It's hard hearing stuff like that about yourself as a kid. He'll probably have a growth spurt soon or in a few years.

My kids were all much taller at year 6 but they all (3) hit puberty awfully early. My sisters kids stayed a very average height all until secondary when they shot up so cousins are similar height now as their dads are both roughly same height.,

Is 144cm = 4 ft 8. Is he 11, year 6, going to secondary next year? It's not that small, and he won't have started puberty yet. Sounds normal. But if you do have concerns in a couple of years I'd take him to GP, ask for referral, don't be fobbed off. Consultant may prescribe growth hormone, but that does have side effects. I'm sure he's fine and won't need this. Re charts, teenagers have grown taller in the last few years and I suspect the old charts are now out of date.

Y6 was where DS2 went from being 'on the smaller side of average" to "tiny". Everyone around him shot up, and he didn't. We are now approaching the end of Y7, and he is back to not looking unusual, but still on the shorter side. He is clearly growing. But yes, the first ones to grow do seem to shoot up at the end of primary. I'm hoping the slowest steady wins the race operates here -but in all honestly, if they end up healthy and taller than me (as the tallest parent) I'll be happy.

Yanbu. My ds has been on the 50 percentile line since birth yet he was smallest in year until about 6 months ago. He's 15 next month and has grown 4" since New Year.

A lot of children are overweight and this is leading to earlier puberty, I'm not sure the charts capture this well.

144cm is not unusual pre puberty.

My DS is shorter than that at 12.5, OP.

It makes me v anxious at times - I am 5ft 2, DH is 5ft 9 and a late developer - so I am guessing it's constitutional.

It bothers DS but he's a big personality and I just keep pushing how everyone is different and he has to like whoever he is, whatever size he is.

But honestly - and I know this will be frowned on - I really worry he will be short, shorter than DH.

I don't want his confidence in life to take a beating or the people he might want to have relationships with to be affected.

And everyone can pile on me for this, but the truth is that until it changes, taller men get better treated than short men in our society.

Did your 20 year old have a growth spurt after 16? Do you know how tall he was at 16?

at 11 my son was 5ft7-8

hes still only 12 and 5ft 10 already

im 6ft, dads 5ft 6

i knew he would be very tall as he was 29 inches as a new-born(and 11lb10oz)and always inches then feet taller that his age group

im talking early 90s now but by age 11 i was 6ft(36 inch legs as well)
i was y7 and taller than the men teachers

my mum and sister is 4ft10 and 4ft 11
i look so funny next to them

tbh even though his dad is short i would have been surprised if my son was, due to me and his birth length

Shorter than average height can also be caused by coeliac disease. Friends’ son was small for his age and GP dismissed concerns. At 11 he was passed in height by my very average DD who was 2 years younger. Change of GP who took a full health history, dismissed fears re growth hormones and sent him for coeliac testing. A glutin free diet made a huge difference to general well being and growth and he is now 5 ‘ 9’’ as an adult so unremarkable though we feel he perhaps missed meeting his full potential as his brothers are much taller.